The Airbus A320 is the aircraft that introduced fully digitized fly by wire to sub-sonic commercial aviation flying. It was deployed in the late 1980's to compete with popular short and mid range medium size jet aircraft of the time.Initially the new aircraft was able to obtain sales due to its advanced technology. The technology resulted in greater fuel economy than competing airliners. However, as other aircraft incorporated similar technologies, this advantage was quickly negated.A total of over 8,780 Airbus A320 aircraft have been built to date.

Airbus A320

The Airbus A320 built from Norbert Rauch plans by Heinz Ernstberger is also available as a short kit. Its has a wingspan of 84" and a length of 93". Construction is a foam fuselage, balsa over foam wings, and a fiberglass nose. Power comes from 90 mm EDF units, but can also be a pair of 5 1/2 lb. thrust turbines. All up weight is about 18 lbs.

Tian Sheng has the Airbus A320 as a kit, ARF, or RTF. It has a 53" wingspan and 60" length. Power is by a pair of 3200 Kv motors turning 56 mm fans. Weight is around 4 lbs.

4 Comments

I used the plans for building my A320 by Aerosquare. However, I chose not to follow the building sequence outlined, as I have been building for some 20 years. Its not that I found anything wrong with what was shown, its just that I’m set in my ways.
I like to start with airplane easiest parts first. For me that is the horizontal and vertical stabilizers, elevators and rudder. They are made out of balsawood and built over the plans. Building them is a great way to get warmed up for this project.
Next comes the wings. If you are used to building straight wings, building the wings of the Airbus A320 will take just a bit more attention. Mainly it is important to get the spars sanded to the proper swept back angle of the wing. I measure, and remeasure. It’s important that the engines are properly positioned on the wing so pay careful attention to where they are to be mounted. I also diverted a bit from the plans of the A320 in that I like to cap all of the spars and ribs.
With the wings completed, its time to assemble the center section that mates the wings to the fuselage and attaches to the outer wings. This is the ideal place for the electronics.
I like the set-up shown in the plans engine nacelles. Using props instead of EDF’s keeps everything simple. Yet you don’t even see them at a distance.
Now epoxy everything you assembled. I like to use fiberglass cloth soaked with epoxy around the wing joints for extra strength.
For simplicity, I built my A320 with fixed landing gear. Before building the fuselage you should decide if you are going to use retracts.
The fuselage is probably the most challenging part of the build. It is composed of halves that are built separately and joined. Getting each half to match the other completely just takes a little extra time and effort, but is well worth the results when done correctly.
Although the plans show Depron used in the construction of the fuselage, I prefer balsawood and hardwood. Construction is very straight forward, just time consuming. After framing and joining the halves, the nose cone is shaped from solid balsa.
The curved fuselage needs to be covered with light balsawood sheeting. Steaming the balsa will help it better go around the tighter curves.
Flying the airplane is a pleasure. The A320 goes exactly where it is pointed. Cross winds don’t seem to bother it. It is more responsive to control inputs than an airliner should be, but I like that. It is not at all twitchy to fly.

I really appreciated that the A320 from Tian Sheng arrived well packaged in a smaller box protected by a larger box on the outside.
The airplane has been described as a smaller version of the four engine jumbo jet produced by the same company. Of course, having two less motors makes it somewhat easier to put together.
I love the great looks of the airplane. It looks just like the real aircraft when in the air, flying over our field.
A nice touch is that I can take the landing gear off for storage.
The only negative thing I found was that, with the supplied battery, the airplane balanced a little nose heavy. That was easily remedied by moving the battery back about 1/2 of an inch.
The A320 from Tian Sheng is good for experienced pilots. It will get lots of admiration at the flying field and I am happy with it.

Tian Sheng’s A320 is a really nice flying airplane. The EDF units have a very scale-like whine that I like. I have read some comments about a wing dropping if the speed gets too low. Well, my airplane has a very gentle straight ahead stall. A wing dropping could be an indication of an airplane that is not built straight. Also, you have the wingspan and length reversed. Mine has a wingspan of almost 60″. I just wanted to set the record straight on that one.